If You Can't Hang, Then There's the Door

The countdown was at six days now, six days until I got to feel his arms wrapped around me, I could barely contain my excitement the past few days. It was Saturday and everyone had the day off tomorrow and me and ash were going to spend the day together. We were going to shop for cute outfits to pick the boys up in at the airport, and get them all welcome home gifts. I smiled to myself as I walked to the kitchen of the bakery.

"Hey the new shipment you ordered is in" Polly said happily placing a box on the table and heading to the freezer to take inventory. I smiled even more.

I had a series of shelves installed behind the counter, they were only about half of the way up the wall but I had planned to put jars filled with homemade pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate and homemade twizzlers to sell behind the counter, and also add a little extra decoration to the store. I opened the box that was filled with various sized jars. They were adorable and I couldn't wait to fill them and put them on the new shelves. I already had everything made, I happily started filling the jars. Everyone was in the front of the store passing out samples and chatting with customers, I smiled as I watched them. I started to walk towards them to ask roger to grab the ladder for me, but I stopped dead in my tracks and dug my fingernails into the edge of the table. My knuckles turned white and my nails bent inward on the cold marble counter.

I felt a sharp pain shoot through my heart, I felt the breath leave my body and I couldn't breath for a moment. I grabbed at my heart as my eyes got wide. The pain subsided quickly , my heart quivered rapidly for a second before It felt normal again. I took in a deep breath, the whole episode lasted just a few short seconds but it felt like hours to me. No one noticed and I waved roger over, I tried to act like nothing had happened.

"Why's up boss lady?" He said happily and I give him a weak smile.

"Could you get the ladder for me ? I want to fill the shelves but I'm so short and the ladder is bigger then me!" I pouted and he patted my head.

"It's ok, I'll happily get the ladder for you shorty!" He teased me and I laughed, I was easily the shortest of not only the sleeping with sirens crew, but my bakery crew as well.

"Thanks doll!" I yelled to him as he ran to get the ladder, I carried the jars to the counter and started filling the shelves I could reach without the ladder.

Just as I finished filling the bottom shelves roger had set the ladder up next to me, I thanked him and carried one of the jars to the higher shelves. I was only about four steps up the ladder as I reached my left arm to slide the jar into place, as I stretched I felt the pain again, it was more intense and It caused me to freeze. I stayed perfectly still as my eyes stretched wider then i thought humanly possible, i felt tears run down my cheek and I felt my heart pump harshly and slowly, with every pump I felt a sharp, deep pain that made me wince. I tried to breath but its like the pain caused me to forget how. Before I knew it I had fallen to the ground and I heard Ashley scream.

She rushed over to me followed by roger, I heard Polly already on the phone with an emergency operator, she was hysterical. I kept gasping for air and holding my chest as the pain got more intense and my heart beat harder and harder then I've ever felt it. I could see Ashley above me holding me still with tears in her eyes as Polly was shouting something at her with the phone held to her ear. Roger was calming down the customers as they all crowded around me, I felt my intake of air decreasing rapidly, Ashley was speaking to me but I couldn't hear or make out the words her eyes were filled with horror and she seemed to be moving In slow motion, her hair bounced slowly as she screamed and the pain on her face seemed to be getting more and more intense, I felt a warm tear hit my cheek as items Ashley's eyes, soon the paramedics moved Ashley out of the way and slipped a mask over my mouth. I slipped into the darkness As I felt the last of the air in my lungs leave my mouth and the pain overcome my chest.

(KELLINS POINT OF VIEW)

"How are we feeling tonight Chicago ?!" I shouted into the microphone, the crowd cheered wildly. I felt my heart race, this moment never got old, the feeling I got when I walked onto that stage did nothing but bring a smile to my face. I was the luckiest guy in the world. All eyes were on me and I couldn't believe it, out first CD had only been out a few months and our tour had sold out.

"This song is my favorite song to perform live, because it seems that every show you amazing group of kids always know the words! Who's ready!!" I shouted and I heard girls screech they all knew the song the second The Intro played, I held the mic out to the crowd and the yelled the words to me as I mouthed them. I felt the excitement inside me, I felt so blessed that so many people already knew the words to our music in such a short period of time.

"You bring out the beast in me !" I brought the microphone back to my lips, this song always made my heart race because it made me imagine Scars beautiful smile as I sang her to sleep with this very song.

My mind raced with thoughts of Scarlett the entire performance, she had seemed to be getting steadily more and more upset as the months went on. She didn't think I noticed, but I did, I could read Scar like an open book. I wanted so badly to hold her in my arms again, just six more days, I was counting down ever since day one. The boys always teased me but I know they missed her too. She would send us care packages of our favorite cupcakes throughout the tour and it always made everyone's day better and all the buys texted her constantly. They missed her too but would never admit it.

"Ok guys, I want to slow it down now, this is a new song that's not on the current album. I wrote it for my beautiful girlfriend back home. We finally perfected it. I hope you all like and.... OH! An smile because our food friend Vic will be filming this to send to her, she's heard it live once before, but it wasn't acoustic!" the crowd roared as Jesse sat next to me on one of the two barstools on stage with his acoustic , I say with my legs held high on the stool so I could rest my arm. Vic walked infront of us with my phone I smiled at him, Vic turned around and filmed the crowd that all waved at the phone as Jesse hit his guitar three times then started strumming the cords to "all my heart" I rocked my head foreword and back with the beat, then I sang my heart out, I sang for Scar, I sang for our love, and I sang to thank her for always encouraging my dreams. This was all thanks to her.

The crowd cheered wildly as we finished the set and walked off stage. Vic handed me my phone and I immediately texted scar the video, but as soon as I hit send Jesses phone rang causing me to jerk my head towards him.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down ash, your hysterical, what's happened?" Jesse said calmly into the phone. I mouthed to him "what's wrong" and he shrugged, he kept making 'shhhh' noises into the phone.

"Ok Ashley breath, now tell me what's wrong" we were all crowded around Jesse now, along with Vic. Listening Intently.

None of us could hear what Ashley was saying except for Jesse, and by the look on his face, it wasn't good news. Jesses mouth hung open and a tear ran down his face. He cleared his throat to reply to her, you could feel the wave of worry fall over everyone in the room as we anxiously waited for Jesse to say something, to say something to us.

"Th-they won't tell you anything ? Why the fuck not!" He was now stern and had tears running down both his cheeks. I felt a lump in my throat. What was going on ?

"A-ash ill call you back" Jesse said through tears and removed the phone from his ear bringing his had at his side and dropped his phone to the ground.

"K-kellin, it's Scar, something happened" he said to me as I walked in front of him. I couldn't breathe. My heart jumped to my throat, what could have happened to Scarlett ?!

"What happened ! Jesse tell me please!" I was crying hysterical and all the guys stood in shock, tears forming in their eyes, even Vic's.

"A-a-Ashley said they were at work, Scarlett was on a ladder placing something in a shelf and all the sudden she was on the ground... Gasping for air, the paramedics took her away and wouldn't let anyone go with them." Jesse stuttered through the explanation. I started crying even harder and brought my hand to my mouth, my eyes were wide and I fell to my hand and knees. I cried into the floor. I needed to get to Scarlett.

"W-we have to go to her !" I whispered as our tour manager finally spoke.

"Mr. Quinn you can't cancel a single date on an album promotional tour... You can be fired from the label and blacklisted" I screamed and got on my feet.

"WHAT? What if she's dying ?! I need to know what's going on ! " i screamed and balled my fists, I felt Justin grab my arms as I kicked and screamed at anyone in sight tears flowing from my eyes to the floor rapidly as Justin dragged me to the dressing room with the rest of the guys on our heels.

"SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!" I screamed and choked on my own words as my voice cracked into a million pieces, and my heart felt like it would beat out of my chest.

"I'm calling Ashley now Kellin, none of us are family and there's nothing we can do, Ashley's been trying for the past hour to get into her room, but they won't allow it" Jesse tried to call me down, but even he was heartbroken, we all were, no one in the room wasn't in shock at the news.

"MAKE HER LIE! SHE HAS TO FIND OUT JESSE!" I screamed as Justin still held me down. I didn't know what to do with myself, all I knew was I needed to get to her. I couldn't wait six days. We only had one more show, and it was tomorrow night.

"Ok look Ashley's calling me!" Jesse said frantically and quickly answered it.

"Baby what's going on?!" The words flew out of his mouth at lightning speed.

"Will she be ok? Did they tell you anything!" His voice was shaky and I couldn't take my eyes off his phone to his ear, like it was going to tell me all the answers.

"Yea, that's good, keep us updated ash, Kellin is a wreak, please don't leave the hospital and keep us posted" he hung up the phone and looked me dead in the eyes.

"They told ash she was stabilized, but they are keeping her in ICU to monitor her, they won't tell her what happened to her exactly or how long she'll be there and she can't enter Scars room until visiting hours tomorrow morning" stable ! That's all they could tell her ? Yea that means she's alive, but that doesn't mean everything's ok! I stopped fighting the guys from holding me down and sat up with my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands.

I just sat there and cried, I felt like I was powerless, weak, and an empty shell. I could feel my hands shake as thoughts of Scar with Ivs coming from her arms haunted my every thought... Even worse I could imagine the flatline on hospital machines. I shook the thoughts from head and started tapping my foot and whispering.

"She's going to be ok, I love her, she's going to be ok, she's going to be ok!" Over and over again I whispered with my eyes shut tightly and my hands in my hair as my head hung low.

I felt the guys around me engulf me in a hug, as I continued to cry through the night, my heart breaking knowing there was nothing I could do to protect scar, I was broken. I needed to be by her side.